A total of 11 World Champions, nine Olympians, six European Champions and one Dame will turn back the clock to the golden age of cycle track racing on Sunday.

The Lee Valley VeloPark within the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford will stage a spectacular racing festival that was the toast of turn-of-the-century America.

Six Day London is the first to take place in this country for 35 years and has Mark Cavendish and Sir Chris Hoy as backers with the cream of the world’s track riders lining up for a range of different disciplines in 60 races.

With 11 world champions, nine Olympians, representing 13 nationalities, the elite men’s field features the likes of Niki Terpstra, Iljo Keisse and Britain’s Adam Blythe.

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There will also be a women’s field across three of the nights, featuring Olympic gold medallist Dani King, Paralympic champion Dame Sarah Storey and Commonwealth silver medallist Charline Joiner.

Mark Cavendish, who is unable to compete due to injury, said: “There’s an ambience about a Six-Day event which is hard to describe. It’s like a party with some cycling going on. It’s a great field and is going to be a fantastic event.”

Sir Chris said: “Track cycling is one of the most exciting spectator sports in the world and the innovative ideas that Madison Sports Group have around the development of Six Day Racing are extremely exciting.

“I’m looking forward to being closely involved with a new generation of London Six Day races.”

Mark Cavendish and Sir Chris Hoy talk about their hopes for Six Day London

Six Day Racing was invented in London in 1878, and by the turn of the 20th century was one of the biggest spectator sports in the US. While Six Day races are still very popular across Europe, the last one on UK soil took place back in 1980 at Wembley Arena.

This version has a 21st century re-boot to make the entire event more like a festival than a hard-core sporting event. Music comes from the Ministry Of Sound and the presentation will be by Progress Productions, responsible for sport presentation at London 2012 and Rugby World Cup. The action will be screened live on Eurosport throughout the week.

Racing starts on Sunday (October 18) with a stand-alone competition – the 1878 Cup and from Monday to Friday, riders will team up in pairs to compete across different race formats with the champions declared on Friday, October 23.